Something Different

Ardennes1944

looking to do a different trip from the usual spain, france etc during the first 6 months of next year. was thinking of prague for a few days and then a separate trip to munich-zell am see for another few days. now im thinking of flying into poland with wizzair and spending 7-9 days travelling through a small bit of poland, taking in munich and austria and maybe budapest. anyone else have recommendations for places to travel from poland? was thinking of a ferry from gdansk to scandinavia maybe? would be open to flying into vilnius and taking in belarus and ukraine possibly?

lastly, im very much interested in WWII so would like to visit auschwitz etc. in poland too, anyone been to these?

many,many thanks

jester77

If you can make your way over to Talinn, the ferry from there to Helsinki is a great laugh, plus the old part of Talinn is nice. The Finns use it for picking up cheap booze so there is a good atmosphere on the boat over.

Auschwitz is worth a visit, morbid. If you make it that far then head to Birkenau, gives you a more realistic feel of what those poor people went through. And while you are in that area, Krakow is fantastic and the salt mines there are something not to miss.

rossie1977

its quite easy to combine budapest and krakow, orangeways runs extremely comfortable buses on that route (takes about 5hr) http://www.orangeways.com/en

budapest is a stunning city, you would need a couple of days to see the main sites, krakow while not as visually beautiful as budapest is still a nice town, easy to get around given its compact size and the area around the main square is buzzing at night, would recommend a trip to auschwitz, yes, you learn so much on the tour, we went with these guys, worth every penny http://www.cracowtours.pl/tours.html?p0=1&o=8703

an hour or so south of krakow is the mountain village of zakopane, some of the best scenery in the whole of poland in that area

Ardennes1944

thanks guys, keep em a coming

Agricola

Flew to Krakow last year expressly to see Auschwitz. Went in June. Didnt pre-book any tours. Just headed down to the main train station and got on one to Oswiecim. Once there its a short and cheap taxi ride to the site. Myself and my friend then just buddied up with two Finns in order to make the numbers for a guided tour. The first and smaller site, Auschwitz, was about an hours tour, mainly viewing the buildings where prisoners were kept, inside and out. The guide was a young Polish woman who was knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. Its morbid, but fascinating. Then your loaded onto a shuttle for a 5 minute trip to Birkenau, which is the larger site. Not as much to see here, but there is the iconic railway entrance and a war memorial at the other end.
Definitely worth seeing if your in this neck of the woods.

We stayed in the old Jewish Qtr of Krakow which is cheap but not much to look at. But a short walk up to the centre and things take a big turn for the better. e2 pints of Tyskie while sitting under a parasol in the main square are all I really needed!

Ardennes1944

Agricola wrote: »

Flew to Krakow last year expressly to see Auschwitz. Went in June. Didnt pre-book any tours. Just headed down to the main train station and got on one to Oswiecim. Once there its a short and cheap taxi ride to the site. Myself and my friend then just buddied up with two Finns in order to make the numbers for a guided tour. The first and smaller site, Auschwitz, was about an hours tour, mainly viewing the buildings where prisoners were kept, inside and out. The guide was a young Polish woman who was knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter. Its morbid, but fascinating. Then your loaded onto a shuttle for a 5 minute trip to Birkenau, which is the larger site. Not as much to see here, but there is the iconic railway entrance and a war memorial at the other end.
Definitely worth seeing if your in this neck of the woods.

We stayed in the old Jewish Qtr of Krakow which is cheap but not much to look at. But a short walk up to the centre and things take a big turn for the better. e2 pints of Tyskie while sitting under a parasol in the main square are all I really needed!

i asked a few of the polish alds at work and they all said krakow was the nicest city to see by far. where did you fly from?

Apanachi

Auschwitz and Krakow have already been mentioned, if you're going to be near Prague, visit the Sedlec Ossuary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary

spurious

I much prefer Gdansk to Krakow. Wroclaw worth a look too.

There's a ferry Stockholm to Riga if you were still interested in seeing more of the Baltics.

Ardennes1944

i think my gf is more inclined to the idea of going south through prague, bavaria, switzerland and austria.

Agricola

Deutschlandfürimmer7 wrote: »

i asked a few of the polish alds at work and they all said krakow was the nicest city to see by far. where did you fly from?

Yeah the weather probably didnt help it when we were there. There was depression over Europe that week, it pissed down in Krakow.

Went from Dublin with Ryanair.